How a Physicist Would Make the Recorder Easier to Play

With a bit of math and a 3D printer, researchers created an instrument that's more forgiving of a certain kind of amateur mistake.   View in browser

Image credits: milatas/Shutterstock How a Physicist Would Make the Recorder Easier to Play With a bit of math and a 3D printer, researchers created an instrument that's more forgiving of a certain kind of amateur mistake. Katharine Gammon, Contributor August 30, 2021                                                                                                                                                                               (Inside Science) -- The recorder is a near-perfect instrument for beginning musicians. It's cheap -- often just a few dollars -- and easy to hold and play with small fingers. That's one reason why groups of elementary students playing "Hot Cross Buns" have dominated music education, said Susan Burns, a longtime recorder player who works as the administrative director of the American Recorder Society. "It's the ultimate democratic instrument -- anyone can play it." But one reason people cringe when thinking about recorder songs is the propensity of new players to blow too hard and hit a note an octave higher than where they aimed. New physics research now proposes a tweak to the instrument that could reduce the likelihood of the painful overblowing problem. The researchers got there by modeling the way air flows through the recorder... Read more Copyright 2021 American Institute of Physics. Inside Science syndicates its articles, columns, blogs and videos to news organizations. To initiate syndication, or request permission to republish our content (on a one-time or continuing basis), please contact Inside Science at insidescience@aip.org. News organizations seeking permission to republish Inside Science content must fully credit Inside Science as the original source of the content, include the author byline, and republish the original, unaltered form (excluding content titles, headlines, or sub-headlines). The reprint format can be seen here. Copyright conditions and usage terms are subject to change at any time without consent or any type of prior notice. To unsubscribe from all future mailings from Inside Science please click here. To manage your email subscriptions please click here.

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